Sunday 26 October 2014

A Little Rant on the Subject of Rudeness

Tonight, OH decided to treat us all to a night at the cinema, to watch the film The Maze Runner, which Little Bird has wanted to see for a while.  We don't do this too often, as it is pretty expensive these days, but now and again as a treat and for a night out en famille it is great.  We may not, however, be doing it again for a while after tonight's fiasco.  Why are people sometimes so annoying?

It seems that a night at the cinema isn't a big deal to some people, who appear to take such an activity for granted and in fact go so far as to use the opportunity to irritate and spoil the occasion for others around them by constantly using their phone and then leaving in the middle of the film only to come back half an hour later and continue to use their phone right until the end of the film.  What is wrong with people?  Is their addiction to technology so great that they can't switch it off for even a couple of hours and do something else?  Why do some people need the constant reassurance that tweeting, instagramming, texting seems to give these days, even when seemingly out for a night with their family?

I don't know if you were in the midst of some family emergency, (I doubt it) but to the people in the row in front of us in the cinema, well to one woman in particular, who insisted on using her phone most of the way through the film, receiving and sending texts and goodness knows what else.  Please get some manners and be a little more considerate of those around you.  Not everyone wants to be distracted from enjoying the film they have paid through the nose to watch, by the light on your phone screen and the whistle of your incoming texts.  There is a time and a place for everything.  If you didn't want to watch the film, which you obviously didn't, as you didn't appear to look up once, go and get a coffee, or better still stay home and let others who want to see it enjoy it.

We could have asked said lady to turn off her phone, but we do not like to dictate to others and didn't want to spoil our evening even more by getting into an argument.  Anyway, sorry to burden you with this Mrs Grumpy outburst.  Has anyone else had a similar experience?

6 comments:

  1. Here at our movie theater people are told to turn off their phones. In fact I have seen people escorted out for not doing so.

    I have seen people using their phones during meals and nothing makes me angrier. Could they not put away their phones for the length of time it takes to have a meal with their families.....

    God bless.

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    1. They don't often enforce rules in the cinema unless someone complains. In fact you don't very often see staff in the cinema auditorium these days.

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  2. Michael Macintyre was on stage in Darlington a few weeks ago and stopped his act when a woman started a phone conversation! Disgusting behaviour!

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    1. Good for him. I like him actually, very funny. Incredibly rude of the woman concerned. Do people have no self awareness these days?

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  3. We went to the theatre a little while ago and someone asked a child if they wouldn't mind not eating all the time. They were sat behind me and had been munching away the entire time, about 40 minutes at this point. The parent of the child told the man off and it ended up with the man being thrown out of the theatre. I agreed with him that it was the theatre, not the Odeon cinema. Some people just won't modify their behaviour when they're out and about.

    We seem to come across the "I've paid my money so I can do what I want" attitude a lot at the minute, it infuriates me.

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    1. Yes, we once witnessed a similar situation, but it was a dispute over some seats, so I suppose it was a bit different and one man and his child ended up getting shown out of the cinema. I thought perhaps he was in the wrong film, but it was very distracting all the while it was going on.

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